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i love pso. so much. but theres just so many things wrong with the game. the amount of augs one has to farm to convert them up the chain to create the better augs takes FAR too long. cutting costs in half would honestly fix that alongside a drop rate increase. actually giving us content instead of a million different scratch tickets would be a solid place to start too. The new bosses and nameless are dank. love it. good content. but fuck man, i wanna love this game but i just cannot invest countless hours into farming the same content to see little to no gain. at least in maplestory i see gain when i grind on mobs for a few hours. but then at least theres GOOD LOOT coming from bosses that i can upgrade when i DO do that content. D: shit man, they could add another concert into the game and id be happy.

15:25 I agree about the name being problematic: From an outsider's perspective, one would probably feel like they're missing a significant amount of context to want to jump in, which isn't helped with the largely negative word of mouth surrounding the game. However, the main reason SEGA would choose to use a name like PSO2:NGS as opposed to PSO3 is purely for domestic reasons, which is that PSO2 was a *massive* game in Japan throughout its lifespan. On global, players only had about a year's worth of emotional and monetary investment, meanwhile JP had *eight* years. Had SEGA started fresh with a hypothetical PSO3, they would have had an uphill battle convincing their player base to migrate from PSO2 to PSO3, which would have meant losing all their cosmetic progress over the years (namely, the collab cosmetics which legally are tied to PSO2). As for the downward trend with active player count, I have a simple explanation, which is that the game doesn't have a vision and direction laid out for its player base. During ver. 1, we essentially had the promise of a new region every half a year. With ver. 2, the major focus became Creative Spaces and Leciel, with Nameless City and M.A.R.S. being teased as the next thing to look forward to. Well, now that Nameless City and M.A.R.S. are out (to underwhelming fanfare, imo), what is there to look forward to that isn't recycled content? This is the first time NGS has absolutely nothing greater on the horizon for players to look forward to, which is essential for drawing in new and returning players. Nothing SEGA is releasing right now or in the near future could be tied to a marketing campaign that would interest people to join or come back. As a comparison, PSO2 during its life span had 7 CG Openings (Ep 1~6 + VITA), 3 spinoffs (PSO2es, PS Nova and Idola), 2 animes (The Animation and Episode Oracle), and a physical TCG. PSO2NGS after 3 years of live service is still using its 1st CG opening that came out when it released, with ver. 2 only having a title and marketing redesign.

Id rather spend my ingame money on cosmetics instead of maxing out gear because cosmetics are permanent whereas gear isn't until were at endgame, the free seasonal weapons are good enough for me

I'm only playing during story updates now. The best way I can describe my relationship with NGS is that I want to love the game but the game doesn't love me back, like at all. I will be there day 1 for the inevitable base PSO2 private server in the future though.

I'm going to be frank; I think it's just a really low quality game and a lot of people see it as such. There's clearly not a lot of resources or passion being put into the game, and for having "Phantasy Star Online 2" right in the name it's a massive downgrade in so many ways from PSO2. I think it's really telling when someone like me with literally 0 prior following or uploads on CZcams and like an average viewership on Twitch of about 5 people can make a 20 minute "NGS is disappointing" rant video and get 30,000 views... something about NGS criticism videos resonates more with players than videos about updates and whatnot. Could chalk it up to outrage being a more contagious emotion but think it goes much further than that. NGS is fundamentally flawed and Sega clearly does not want to put any significant amount of resources into it.

They need to fix the drop rate. Rotate rare drops to different bosses in different regions. Make certain quest have exclusive gear & cosmetic drops. Fix the character models & how accessories are worn. Allow more accessories to be worn. Allow to only wear “in wear”. Fix how face paint is applied to the different character models. Add more class skills. Add more PA’s. Add a version 2 of the same class thats less/more stronger but you attract faster/slower. Make urgent quest more like a “raid” instead of just a boss fight. Add more “permanent” concerts. Allow to make your own weapons but are less stronger than the rare drop versions and make them “non-resale”… i could go on and on 😅

As a new player (a month and a half so far) to PSO2 and NGS, that is playing F2P, I find the game itself to be a blast to play and the absurd amount of ways to dress up/build in our creative space is insane. For me, there is just SO much to try to obtain! (Also I had assumed NGS was a soft reboot sequel.) I only really have two big issues. It is mind numbing to make enough meseta to earn anything "pretty" or "cool" off of the player shop. At least it's easy enough to turn off the mind while grinding Dext or the likes though. However, the worst part is the community as a whole for me. It's harsh trying to get any form of conversation, attention, or answers when people are focused on sticking with their already established circles. I assume most people are so certain that anyone new won't stick around anyways that they'd rather not get invested, but if that's the case, they're alienating everyone actually trying to get established. We all expect some toxicity of course, some people are just boorish for either attention or drama, but that's run of the mill for any game that can be F2P. I feel I got lucky and got "adopted" by a small group of really kind people that gave me enough reason to keep coming back, but I'm not sure many people who want to try the game would be as lucky. P.S. I do not like nameless city, as the timer stresses me out when going to collect the boxes near the end lol.

Wow, what a great point! 15:10 i never thought of that, but i totally agree with this. if i was a new player i would definitely think NGS was an expansion to regular PSO2, and it would require me to play base pso first.

Well rn yeah all new/returning players got at the moment is just new armor/exelio weapon that can be upgraded later on along with df dalion r2 and solus r2. Other than that just grinding the best augments as well. I think seasonals the only thing coming for new players to catch up i guess. Im satisfied that the game is not barebones anymore unlike launch where it was deserved and barely had anything at all. Overall yea, the main problem for this game is just their pacing of the updates suck and the roadmap really left things out. I know no game can ever have constant content but i do want to see this game get its story finished and released all the dark falz bosses because i hate unfinished live service games. Sucks more it never gets closure

the free shop pass nerf they did for ngs killed f2p play and the lack of content (besides gacha ofc) just made the game not appealing

Speaking as what would be considered "midcore" in this game (i have no interest in the standing quests whatsoever, i just dont find it fun) there just isnt anything engaging *before* standing quests that makes the game appealing. PSO, PSU, and PSO2 all had things to chase that weren't BiS and came from a variety of locations. It also had a fair amount of sidegrade systems (not counting skill rings, fuck skill rings) that may not have been major power increases, but were *fun*. I enjoyed daily crafting, crafting skill discs for friends, dismantling my gear that i didn't want to list mass mats for meseta, farming advance for spheres for mag food, advance quests, ultimate quest farming, challenge quests for weekly SG, casino games for SG, etc etc. On the flipside, my options in NGS are: get addon skills (done), upgrade PAs past lv5 (why? not nearly worth the investment), grind dext base (zzzz), run nameless and leciel (i've been running leciel for what feels like forever), and then duel quests. Do you notice the trend here? outside of duel quests and leciel/nameless, theres just nothing social about the *gameplay*. It has tons of social features, but the content itself unless you bring friends (which being honest, all of mine quit the game AGES ago) you're just going to be mindlessly grinding while hardly paying attention to the game. With the current roadmap, there's just not a lot of motivation to continue. Lack of clarification on story? fine, i guess, but it also doesn't seem like they're addressing the fundamental problems with the game. But realistically, outside of gambling, what is there really left for a casual? if they've built their house to satisfaction, they can... talk in the lobby. I don't know.. I've been a fan of PSO since 2002 and it's never felt this barren for casual content (actual content, not mindlessly AFK farming dext/el nossa) since the original release of PSO1.

This game makes me want to go back and play everything pre PSO2. Looking forward to the inevitable classic pso2 server to show up.

PSO2 for all intends and purposes died with NGS. Be thankful we had a nice year and a half of PSO2 global reliving the episodes

The main issue right now is the progression is really poor now. They keep releasing new content with no real reason to do them because the itemization is poor. They seem to fear to lose the casual player base and try to make most of the content and items in the game accessible to everyone all the time.

I don't think I heard it in the video but one outside factor to consider for July at least is Final Fantasy XIV's expansion launched so I could see it having an impact at least temporarily players who play both. For me personally, I struggle to get into and commit to the original PSO2 as well. I think for me it really comes down to the feeling that I need to commit to one game for 6 months to really get a feel for it. So I'm not sure there's anything NGS could do for me at this point, but maybe reusing the toolset for a more focused experience like Phantasy Star Nova would be slightly more appealing. But I don't see that happening lol.

oh i actually have a lot i'd like to say about this!!! i'm one of the "die hard" players u mentioned... and for me the biggest issue is that theres just nothing worth farming for right now. we're still sitting on wingard as the best weapon, eredims drop like candy, and exelio isnt an upgrade. theres just nothing to really chase gear-wise right now except small optimizations. there also arent any augments worth grinding for outside of gran gladia soul as grand dread keeper II is pretty much impossible to farm for right now(maybe the coming LTQs will change that), and the other high end augs have tanked in price or don't have a reliable/worth the time farm(aegis soul IV for lux halphinale). not to mention that augment transfer has reduced the need for augments as players now will just wait until they have transfer passes to move their current stuff to whatever becomes the new best... i like playing the game!!!! its really fun to me!!! but i have nothing to do!! nothing big to chase and very few avenues to chase what little there is!! its been nameless city spam or dext base PSE farming for over a month lol.. for both current, new, and returning players... we need stuff to chase.. stuff to get excited about when it drops. we just do not have that at the moment, like.. at all. it would be nice if this came in a different form than just higher rarity weapon that eventually becomes trash down the line lol. maybe weapons with truly unique potentials or something that changes a certain class' PA or something???? i dunno!! something actually interesting rather than just number going up!!! it'd be nice if it also dropped from a wider array of content too. you mention ordinal tower in this and honestly... ive played NGS actively since launch and i've run it like... 10 times max lol maybe some incentives to do things is something sega should try LMAO for new players, honestly i think all base pso2 costumes/layering wear should just be earnable f2p without using meseta or SG. tie it to clearing content instead of just making it a daily 10 pull like the current thing we have... fashion is a huge huge huge hook for this game but its fatal flaw is the time/money investment it requires to truly enjoy it. you need lots of accessories, clothes, makeup options, and body paints to really get into it... so i think giving new players access to old pso2 stuff is an easy solution for that. i know sega already kinda does this sometimes, like with last month's growthment exchange event and special scratch, but it should just be permanent and more abundant and spread across more content. theres really no reason to be trying to sell base pso2 cosmetics for full $2 a scratch prices in 2024 with NGS spec items existing lol. also, to chat about your musings on older vs newer fans: i started with global PSO2 when it came to PC in 2020 and i've been playing since. just a few months ago i went back and tried older phantasy star games, phantasy star zero and recently phantasy star portable 2 infinity and i adore them. those two games have made me a phantasy star fan, not just a pso2 or ngs fan. a big issue NGS has in my opinion is a lack of "identity". the world and story of these older games feels much more alive and fleshed out... i especially love the role we take on in PSP2i!!! it makes me really sad that we don't have that so much in NGS.. sometimes when making a new outfit or character in NGS, i'd like to give them a backstory or imagine how they live in the world and NGS is just such a dead end in that regard lol. even comparing NGS to PSO2 you get the same feeling.. theres this phantasy star charm that feels absent in NGS's world. also, i don't feel particularly out of place in the older games!! theres enough still around in the new games that i was able to feel at home, at least for PSZ and PSP2i. i'd really really love to see NGS get back what these older games have... ever since playing them + revisiting PSO2 lately i can't help but feel more and more disappointed with the direction NGS has taken. like for example... lately ive been doing endless runs in base pso2 and fundamentally the game is similar to NGS in gameplay but the variety of environments and enemies you fight is just..... oh man does it make being stuck on halpha fighting dolls and purple dolls sting that much more lol. that said, there is just nothing else like it! theres no replacement for what NGS offers and i DO still have fun!! HUGE post SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!! luv ur vids n streams btw!!! i dont normally interact but im around!!! hope u keep it up!! ^-^

I think it sway away from sci-fi and more into anime fantasy. It puts it against Genish impact which is way more popular than pso2ng.

I saw a comment and someone summed up how I feel about ngs as someone that loved base pso2 and likes ngs Fanfare is missing from ngs. We have 3 different dark falz fights and none of them have any story implications whatsoever they just exist and that’s insane to me cause that’s dark falz! I think city exploration recently was a great update but that’s been like 4 months ago and it’s still the same thing , we needed like 4 different types of city exploration since it’s the closest we got to getting back on hopping on a stage to quickly farm and move out since base pso2. imagine a forest exploration for example Ultimately the devs simply aren’t trying imo and they don’t need to I guess cause the game is still pulling numbers (they don’t care about global numbers only Jp numbers and Jp numbers are still insanely high) and when they do try it’s either something really good or just moving a goal post on the newest level of highest gear so not that great

I agree with the comments here. Speaking for myself I take breaks cause I have to. Every time I return people get tired of the Some people don't wanna teach or help. They get blocked and left out. I mean that's fine that's those players.

How I see NGS personally: 90% of content is LTQ/LT in general. Any new content greedwalled behind RNG/ player shop (when stuff becomes affordable/obtainable - far beyond being relevant). Replayability factor is missing somehow. WAY too much fashion lootboxes.

I wanted this game to be great so badly. It definitely has some awesome aspects to it! The groundwork is there. But it takes far too long to update/fix anything. The drip feed of content is real. The combat is fun and flashy, and I love the customizing options for your character. But...the game just feels empty for me. I never really get excited to log on and play anymore. It just feels like the majority of players just sit in towns and shows off their glamor. Most of the outfits are for female characters and the combat, although fun for a moment, gets boring fast. Trying to find a goal to grind for seems exhausting for me. I hope this game turns around and improves, but at the moment, I have more fun playing the older PSO games.

CLANG CLANG CUNNY SUPREMACY

Returning to PSO for the first time since Gamecube and this was super helpful. Glad to know my girl RAmarl is actually as good as I thought she was when i was a kid.

If there was a MARS unit that was huge Jet Boots, I would use this system. As it is, meh.

Man I just stumbled here after thinking about my childhood and how this was my first proper console online experience. Back then you just had to work it out and tbh I spent no time researching I just played the game whenever I had free time. I've learnt a lot from this 😂 it's fair to say. This video was both a nostalgia overload and trip down memory lane.

So… Episode 3 CARD Revolution lore run(s) next? ;) Edit: nvm, you mentioned it at the end of the video. Fwiw, I believe there are game shark/action replay codes for the game that work in dolphin that could make the playthroughs much faster. Especially if you couple them with save states.

a good thing about lasers is the charge shot 2 is the knockback effect, so you can pretty much be in a coner and stunlock the room. also i think now you can get some good weapons, shields and SUV in the pub and secret society, becuse depends on drops is kinda underwellming. and at last YOU TRIED TO AVOID THE VR BUT YOU CANNOT ESCAPE lol

How does one exit to character select instead of the game?

I told sue my name ... Can the quests be reset

Amazing series man, cant wait for ep 4 even if it is light in the story, i never played all the way through episode 2, even now that ive leveled up a character on ephinea i skipped it, its great to embrace the story fully, they did a really great job imo.

is there a way to exit out of MARS before cooldown reaches 0?

Wow that was a sad ending. I remember playing these episodes on Gamecube but were these quests Blueburst exclusive? Im so curious and hooked now haha

I think you killed my goddess refers not necessarily to rico. But to the falz you fight at the end that’s mixed with rico. Because technically the d factor makes flow almost offspring of falz. I’m pretty sure this part is set after you killed falz, that’s why flowen says the red saviour or whatever because you saved her soul. Olga flow is a mix of falz, flowen and olga ai, so I think the falz part of it can feel when falz gets destroyed.

Oh boy! More!

Yes I was on the clock for this one :D Wow I didn't know about that last flowen message! It's a shame we don't get to see the lab reacting to it, is there no story follow-up on this at all? Not even to introduce the towers?

I can't believe it, but I've actually come back to New Genesis. Got the itch to use Jet Boots again, so I'm giving the game another go. Thanks for the refresher! 👍🏻

Dang this story got dark! Ive played this game since the dreamcast days but never payed too much attention to the story. This is great stuff man. Thank you for doing this.

Thank you, I can't believe I forgot about that stupid myenin up there in Rwh Maqaed. Not to mention I feel like many other creators also seem to forget about it and just say there's only 3 in Retem when really there's been 4 this whole time.

Seeing the empty lobby makes me sad :(

I like these lore videos but I prefer your approach more when you did the Episode 1 series. Im getting alot of extra content like gameplay that i don’t need for EP 2. Just a suggestion

i remember the megadrive series newman are more like cat girls than elfs, maybe thats why the HUnewarl had some animal traits and i think its why they bring beasts in psU universe (heh) to maybe land more on those ideas.

Nice video -- glad to see other people are covering PSO lore.

Totally had forgotten about the bombs, memory unlocked :D It's a shame they didn't make the antagonist fight you at this point.

1.- unequip your wep 2.- spams spells until psycho wand 3.- profit

Really late to finish watching this but this was such a good one! Who knew the story was so good. I also think it’s interesting how people pronounce pso stuff. Like Gee foie or Jee foie. And you pronounce it rah-gol but I always thought it was ray-gol. And flowen you pronounce differently, I always say flow-un. But I first played this game when I was very young and didn’t know the word pioneer. So I actually use to think it was pronounced pee-on-er. I was young…ish.

I just thought of something. What if the "poison" effect from later iterations of Megid is a modified D-Factor?

Love this series!